Team Sky tightens grip on Giro white jersey

Sky’s two Colombians have taken a firm grip on the white jersey of best young rider. Yesterday, high above Lake Como at the small Pian dei Resinelli ski resort, Sergio Henao climbed into the lead. Team-mate Rigoberto Uran sits just over a minute behind in second place.

“The whole team’s working well together, the Colombians helped out Mark [Cavendish] on the sprint days and Mark helped them out where he could,” Sky sport director, Steven de Jongh told Cycling Weekly. “It’s a good combination.”

The road to Pian dei Resinelli climbs 7.75 kilometres and switches back 15 times. Years ago, including 1962 when Spain’s Angelino Soler won, locals had to pay to use the road. Yesterday, several of Sky’s rivals suffered the costs of a draining day over the Valcava and Culmine di San Pietro climbs.

American Peter Stetina (Garmin-Barracuda) sat only 1-47 minutes back in the classification at the start of the day, but lost ground early on. He paid for the previous day, when he helped team-mate Ryder Hesjedal into the leader’s pink jersey.

Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale) dropped back around Bellabio and the start of Pian dei Resinelli. He worked for Ivan Basso, riding pace at the front before Sylvester Szmyd took over.

Sky’s Colombians were free to ride their own race after helping Cavendish in the sprints,

“Caruso is the main contender, but he has to work a lot for Basso. Stetina had to work a lot for Hesjedal, too,” added De Jongh. “We don’t have this problem in our team.”

“My priority is to Ivan,” Caruso told Cycling Weekly. “I’ll try for the white jersey, but I have to think of him first.”

Stetina’s situation is the same, underlined by a 17-minute time loss yesterday.

“To make a good placing in the white jersey class would be a big deal for Peter. But it’s clear, when you have a rider going for the overall, like Ryder, that takes precedence,” Garmin sports director Charly Wegelius told Cycling Weekly.

“He’s doing a great job, learning about the work from Christian [Vande Velde], who’s full of experience. If Pete is going to become a leader in the future, he needs to know what it is like to have someone working for him. It helps you understand what you are asking guys to do, what you can and can’t ask them to do. It’s already great thing for him and he’s going to grow a lot from it.”

Stetina and Caruso have a lot of work ahead of them, both of their leaders will fight for the overall lead in the coming week through the Alpine Mountains. Sky’s Colombians have their own objectives, a high GC and the white jersey.

Connect with us

Please keep me up to date with special offers and news from Cycling Weekly and other brands within the Time Inc. UK Group by email. You can unsubscribe at any time.

We'd also like to send you special offers and news just by email from other carefully selected companies we think you might like. Your personal details will not be shared with those companies - we send the emails and you can unsubscribe at any time. Please tick here if you are happy to receive these messages.